Cohen worked on Moscow Trump Tower deal for longer than he told Congress: report

President Trump Donald John TrumpGiuliani says FBI may have placed spy in Trump campaign Giuliani: There is 'nothing illegal about looking for dirt on political opponents' Giuliani: If Mueller subpoenas us, we will challenge it MORE’s personal attorney Michael Cohen worked on a deal to try and build a Trump Tower in Moscow for months longer than he had told Congress, Yahoo News reported Wednesday.

The site reported that Cohen told lawmakers that he had stopped working on the project in January 2016 when he decided the “proposal was not feasible for a variety of business reasons and should not be pursued further.”

However, Yahoo News reported that investigators have obtained messages from Russian associate Felix Sater, who worked on the deal, that show Cohen continued to discuss the project until at least May 2016.

Trump was close to securing the GOP presidential nomination at that time.

Cohen and his lawyer did not return Yahoo News’s requests for comment.

Sater told Yahoo News that he had turned over his text messages and emails with Cohen to special counsel Robert Mueller Robert Swan MuellerSasse: US should applaud choice of Mueller to lead Russia probe MORE, as well as the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.

“I was trying to build the tallest tower in Europe. For me, it was a business transaction,” Sater told the site.

“I have fully cooperated with every investigation and every committee. I have provided absolutely everything — voluntarily and not under subpoena — that was asked of me and will continue to willingly cooperate,” he continued. “All my communications show I was tenaciously trying to get a super tall tower built and nothing else.”

Yahoo reported that the messages show Cohen and Sater started to discuss a deal to build a Trump Tower in 2015.

The New York Times first reported on the emails sent by the Russian developer last year, including Sater’s claim that he would get Russian President Vladimir Putin involved in the project.

“I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected,” Sater wrote in one email.

The Washington Post also reported last year that the Trump Organization nearly reached a deal to open the development in Moscow, but had dropped the project in January 2016 after they failed to get the land and permits for the building.

Cohen is currently under criminal investigation. The FBI raided his office last month, partly on a referral from Mueller.